New PG&E scandal shows why Sacramento must demand that utility clean house

AP

In this Sept. 9, 2010, file photo, a massive fire following a pipeline explosion roars through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco. PG&E was convicted of six felonies because of the disaster, yet continued to skimp on its safety obligations.

In this Sept. 9, 2010, file photo, a massive fire following a pipeline explosion roars through a mostly residential neighborhood in San Bruno, a suburb of San Francisco. PG&E was convicted of six felonies because of the disaster, yet continued to skimp on its safety obligations. (AP)

Californians are in their second year of hearing the same tale of woe from Pacific Gas & Electric: that the giant investor-owned utility faces an existential threat if it doesn’t get relief from the costs resulting from the giant wildfires that now occur with grim regularity. State lawmakers responded earlier this year by passing a measure that helped PG&E deal with the cost of 17 wildfires in 2017.

But a new California Public Utilities Commissioninvestigation shows that the biggest existential threat to PG&E is PG&E itself. It found that from 2012 to 2017, the utility pressured its employees to falsify data related to the safety of natural gas pipelines. What makes this even more unacceptable is that PG&E was convicted of six federal felonies and fined $1.6 billion over its failure to properly inspect and maintain a gas transmission line that exploded in 2010 in San Bruno, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes. A CPUC statement expressed disbelief that PG&E could be so blithe about gas safety inspections “after such a tragedy.”

PG&E attempted to play damage control by vaguely announcing “some leaders” were no longer with the utility. That’s not nearly good enough. As state Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, told the San Francisco Chronicle, “They gotta clean house.”

Lawmakers should demand to know who’s going, what’s next and why PG&E should be trusted again.